Heat domes happen when strong high pressure atmospheric conditions remain stationary for an unusual amount of time, preventing convection and precipitation and keeping hot air “trapped” within a region.
This can be caused by multiple factors, including sea surface temperature anomalies and the influence of a La Niña.
This pattern will expand into the next week while the blocking high gradually expands across the Mediterranean region towards the southeast.
So, although December started with quite some wintry weather pattern, the weather charts flipped back into a much warmer phase, and it is not yet ready to cut the trends of the record-breaking month-by-month period since spring 2023.
The water vapor satellite view over Europe and the North Atlantic reveals the developing High, with a departing upper low in the southern Mediterranean.
Before we go into details on the pattern evolution, the video below is a quick overview of what’s next for the European continent as we emerge into the second half of December.
The main reason behind the upcoming warm wave is a very powerful heat dome aloft. Generally, when a long period of stable weather is established, this well-known feature intensifies a warm wave (or a heat wave in summer months) underneath.
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